Religious Education

At St Charles our aim is to produce religiously literate young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age and capacity – to think spiritually, ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life. This is achieved, not just through class lessons, but in how we live together as a School community-learning, growing and praying together.

 

As a Catholic School we aim to work closely with the home and parish to create an atmosphere where, through teaching and example, our children will be helped to enter into a loving relationship with God our Father, Jesus our brother and with each other as members of God’s family and so continue to lay foundations of the Catholic faith.

At St Charles Catholic School we are aware that we have to deliver a broad balanced education to help our children grow to their full human potential and pay regard to the formation of the whole person, so “that all may attain their eternal destiny and at the same time promote the common good of society.” How a child develops spiritually, morally and socially is every bit as important as academic progress.

This means in Curriculum Religious Education we are not just teaching a curriculum subject but also a living faith, which we are encouraging our children to share in.

 

Aims and Objectives

 

The Catholic vision of education promotes the dignity and freedom of every person as created in the image and likeness of God. This vision inspires and encourages the beliefs and values which are lived out in the daily life of our Catholic schools. Within this vision, religious education is very much a journey of formation involving every member of the school community.

For all children, religious education is a proper subject in its own right in the school’s curriculum. It is a rigorous academic discipline and as such it is taught, developed and resourced with the same commitment as any other subject. For those children already engaged in the journey of faith, religious education will be catechesis, the process by which the faith of believers is nourished and educated. For some children it will be their first opportunity to hear the Good News of the Gospel.

(Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools published for the Bishops’ Conference by the Catholic Education Service).

Through curriculum religious education the staff at St Charles School aims to promote:

 

  • knowledge and understanding of Catholic faith and life;
  • knowledge and understanding of the response of faith to the ultimate questions about human life, its origin and its purpose;
  • the skills required to engage in examination of and reflection upon religious beliefs and practices.

 

The objectives of curriculum religious education in St Charles school are:

 

  • to develop knowledge and understanding of the mystery of God and of Jesus Christ, of the Church and of the central beliefs which Catholics hold;
  • to develop awareness and appreciation of Catholic belief, understanding of its impact on personal and social behaviour and the vital relationship between faith and life, life and faith.
  • to develop appropriate skills: for example, ability to listen; to think critically, spiritually, ethically and theologically; to acquire knowledge and organise it effectively: to make informed judgements;
  • to foster appropriate attitudes: for example, respect for truth; respect for the views of others; awareness of the spiritual, of moral responsibility, of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life and especially the challenge of living in a multicultural, multifaith society.

 

The outcome of religious education is religiously literate young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age and capacity to think spiritually, ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.